


Honeypot

by thrillflea



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Asexual Ben Hargreeves, Ben is alive, Beta Wanted, Brainwashing, Chastity Device, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Extremely Dubious Consent, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Non-Consensual Bondage, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Omega Klaus Hargreeves, Pheromones, Porn With Plot, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sexual Slavery, Their dad is doing some MK-ULTRA shit on Klaus, Torture, Whump, self-harm (minor), umbrellakink fill
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:13:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26311711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thrillflea/pseuds/thrillflea
Summary: Kink meme fill for omega Klaus in a chastity device. I went overboard.Klaus comes home on their sixteenth birthday after three years of "spy training". The other siblings know only three things: he looks half-dead, he's in a chastity device like an omega in the middle ages, and he's there to encourage their first ruts.What they don't know is that nobody is going to breed Klaus when he comes into heat. Reginald plans to keep him in heat for his entire presenting year, a form of torture that will make his pheromones irresistible. He might not be a "spy", but he'll be an asset. A honeypot. And once they find out, his siblings will do anything to save him from that fate.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves/Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves/Klaus Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves/Everyone, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Number Five | The Boy/Ben Hargreeves/Diego Hargreeves/Klaus Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy/Klaus Hargreeves
Comments: 29
Kudos: 147





	1. Homecoming (Five)

**Author's Note:**

> This is tame right now but is going to be inexcusably filthy starting in chapter three. (But all of the siblings are 16 when things get there.)
> 
> Set in a world where Omegas are usually treated like everyone else most of the time.
> 
> I have 60k+ words plotted out for this monster. Forgive meee.

The night before their thirteenth birthday, Five found Klaus standing on the toilet tank in the ivy bathroom. Klaus didn’t make any noise when Five turned on the light, but his leg did wobble a little. Points off.

“It’s three am,” Five said. “I’ve been looking for you.” When Klaus didn’t say anything, he rolled his eyes and locked the door behind him. “I’m not an idiot, just get on the roof.” 

The window looked too small to climb through, but he watched as Klaus folded a washcloth over the sharp edge and boosted himself through. There was a soft thump from the other side, no louder than one of the roosting pigeons, and when Five blinked to join him Klaus had already made himself comfortable on exactly the sort of small ledge they liked to raft. 

Five balanced himself on a decorative curve. It felt sturdy enough. “Does anyone else know about this place?” 

Klaus shrugged. “Probably? But I think Vanya’s the only one who could still get through there, and she’s not going to. And you. What with the jumping.”

“Blinking. I told you I like that word better. Look, we have to talk.” 

“I didn’t think you put on your uniform in the middle of birthday night just to reminisce. What’s up, Fiver?” Klaus produced a cigarette - not the whole thing, Five noticed, maybe the last third - and, after waiting for a challenge that never came, lit it with a match. 

That was the first clue Five had that maybe Klaus wasn’t going to be as shocked by his news as he had expected. He cleared his throat. “How many times have you been to the crypt this year?”

“You know it’s not just one crypt, right? I don’t know why dad just says that.” 

“Focus,” Five said, and snapped his fingers. “This is important. How many times, Klaus?” 

Klaus looked awful, if Five admitted it to himself. (He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to be doing any of this.) He’d always been a weird-looking kid, even for an omega, but they’d always assumed that maybe talking to dead people just sort of did that. 

Now he just looked a little like he was dying. All the time. 

“ _ Klaus. _ ”

“I don’t keep  _ count, _ ” Klaus hissed, then scrubbed a hand through his hair. It was longer than Reginald usually let Klaus keep it, Five thought. He felt his stomach go cold. “Fifty times, maybe.” 

“Close. It was fifty-seven. I saw his records. Look, you know what dad says about doing the same thing and expecting different results, right? I don’t think he’s trying to help you anymore.”

Five’s stomach plummeted when he thought Klaus was crying - he hated dealing with crying, and omega crying made him feel messed up even at their age - but he eventually realized Klaus was laughing. 

“Did you seriously come out here to tell me that?” 

“This is important,” Five said again, but he felt like he was losing control of the situation. “Stop laughing. This  _ is  _ serious. I think he’s given up on you. He always said that you were always an experiment, with the whole omega thing.” 

In interviews, to Klaus’s face. An open secret. An experiment, the omega on a team of alphas, and little Vanya the beta. 

Klaus smiled. The cigarette was still between his fingers, even though it had already burned out. “Yeah. Dad and I talked about it already. He’s doing a different experiment now. He was going to tell you guys tomorrow. Later today? Happy birthday, by the way.” 

Five knew he should be relieved, but something felt wrong. “Okay, so are you still on the team? Or are you actually getting Vanya’d to sit around, or what?”

Birthdays didn’t matter. Diego was the only one of them who still cared - and maybe Klaus, but Five wouldn’t bet on it. They’d barely seen him over the past few months, as the crypt visits had ramped up and the length of his recovery after each one had drawn out. He felt like he barely knew him. 

“Dad’s doing something the military figured out. I’m going to be a  _ spy, _ ” Klaus said. 

* * *

Their father explained it the next day.

The explanation itself was brief, without any pomp or circumstance - like he told them, Klaus was only entering the new training program because he had failed miserably at using his gift.

He didn’t say “spy”, but he did say “asset”. According to him, he had previously worked with the military on a program for the creation of these “assets”. What Klaus would learn was based on that program, except -

“Perfected,” Reginald said. 

Klaus would be gone for months at a time, he told them, but would return for occasional inclusion in their normal training. Later, Pogo had let slip that Klaus would probably be back for good once they were all sixteen. 

None of them had bought that everything was fine, except maybe Luther. For a while they even tossed around the idea of trying to break him free, but - come on, they were thirteen. They didn’t even know where Klaus  _ was.  _

Besides, Klaus came back eventually. A little quieter than usual, but Five noted that he didn’t look like he was  _ actively dying  _ anymore, so that set some of his fears at ease. And who was going to complain about getting a break from his chattering? 

The family fell into an uneasy rhythm. Klaus was gone for months, then back for a few weeks at a time. Five told himself that it was normal for them to have a different relationship now; even if they had been normal kids at school, Klaus would have been separated into the omega classes. 

That they were a family,  _ technically,  _ made little difference. Maybe psychologically they were siblings, but a presenting omega could fuck with a  _ normal  _ family, let alone one where nobody was actually related. 

So Five told himself it was fine, and avoided Klaus on his visits. He tried not to, but it was like the whole Vanya thing, it was just something that happened. Completely natural. Sometimes people just grow apart in their teens.

When the visits stopped around their fifteenth birthday, it took six months for Five to notice. He wasn’t proud of that, particularly when it was Ben who had to point it out. To all of them. 

Diego suggested asking Mom, who had just reassured them all that Klaus would be home for their sixteenth birthday. 

Luther liked the sound of that. 

“See? It’s fine,” he said. “I told you, Dad knows what he’s doing.”

Diego threw a pencil at Luther, but he didn’t say anything. Five wasn’t surprised; he wasn’t going to agree with number one, but he wasn’t going to disagree with Mom either. They were all so  _ predictable.  _

“That sounds good,” Allison said, like someone about to suggest doing something else. Five understood; it had been ages since he’d even thought about Klaus and his training. Even if this was weird, they had enough weird shit to worry about. 

Still, there was something bothering him. 

“Klaus hadn’t presented the last time he was here, right?” 

Luther shifted uncomfortably; Five ignored him. If he wanted to take his biological clock as a personal insult, that was his own business. Besides, it’s not like Diego had beaten him. None of them had entered their rut yet. 

“I don’t see why that’s any of your business,” Allison said. “But I don’t think so.” 

“You’re such assholes,” Ben said. “No, he hadn’t.” 

“So maybe he’s just presenting now, and isn’t here so that he has some privacy,” Diego said. He was flipping his knife now, not looking up. “I mean, he wouldn’t be here for that even  _ if  _ he hadn’t fucked it up for himself and gotten stuck with spy training.” 

“Exactly,” Five said. “Initial presentation lasts, what, over a year? Off and on? So even if he’s just getting treatment, why the hell is he coming back for our sixteenth? Besides, fifteen is still  _ early, _ ” he added, for Luther’s oblivious benefit. 

“We shouldn’t even be talking about this,” Diego complained. “Maybe they’re just bringing him back here for it. This place is big enough.” 

“Hmm,” Five said. He didn’t know what to say. Apparently none of the others did either, because eventually Luther brought up their last mission and the whole conversation devolved into bitching. 

* * *

Klaus came home the night before their sixteenth birthday.

Half-asleep and straining to hear, Five couldn’t actually hear Klaus say anything. He knew it must be him, though. It’s not like they had many visitors, and there weren’t many other people who might turn up in the middle of the night the day before their birthday. 

Mostly just their missing brother. As promised. And their father might be a lot of things, but he was seldom an outright  _ liar.  _

Five breathed through his mouth, then his nose, and thought that maybe he could catch the edge of Klaus’s scent. He still hadn’t entered rut, none of his siblings had, but the olfactory effects had finally started just the other week. 

None of them - and not Klaus, either, if that was actually him moving luggage downstairs. A sweeter smell, what Five thought was probably just baseline omega, but nothing more. 

_ Curiouser and curiouser,  _ he thought _.  _

The explanation came the next day, after breakfast. Despite having been considering the mystery of Klaus for some time, Five realized quickly that his theories had been off the mark. 

Drastically off the mark. 

“Children,” Reginald began, which was enough to put Diego off before the speech even started. Five wasn’t looking at him, but from the corner of his eye he saw Luther dig his elbow into Diego’s side. That would probably earn him an oopsie-dagger before the end of the day.

“ _ Children.  _ Congratulations: you have each avoided youthful mortality, earning you your place here today.” 

_ I guess if one of us had died, burying what was left would count as time-out for the old man.  _

“You are growing, though not yet grown. Still, the time has come for your world to open up. No, I do not mean you are free to wander or to attend the cinema,” he said, tightly, and waited until Luther was no longer looking towards Allison. 

Reginald always demanded the utmost attention. 

“Instead, I will be bringing a taste of the outside world into our home. Number Four was returned to us last night. I am certain you will be curious about the training he has undergone in his absence, but that is none of your concern. I would warn you away from questioning him, but I expect your adolescent fevers will distract you well enough.”

Before Five could consider his statement further, Reginald turned towards the door. “Ah. There he is.” 

Pogo entered the room, followed by Klaus. Trailed by Klaus.  _ Leading Klaus,  _ Five thought, which was his last clear thought for some time, other than  _ what the fuck.  _

Klaus didn’t look like he was dying anymore. Klaus looked like he was  _ dead.  _ His always-spooky eyes were now in dark, hollowed sockets, skin stretched tight over his cheeks. Skin stretched tight over his  _ everything,  _ because he was naked.

Not entirely naked. There was a heavy collar around his neck, attached to the leather leash in Pogo’s hands. There was also something between his legs. 

Five didn’t want to look more closely. He wanted to throw up, actually. He wanted to hear one of his siblings protest, or shout at their father. Instead they were silent, saying nothing, and when Five closed his eyes he could smell the sharp scent of alpha interest.

Behind him, Vanya gasped. He didn’t open his eyes until he could smell omega. 

_ This is so fucked up.  _ But their father hated it when they stated the obvious, so he stayed silent. 

“Gather yourselves. I will not tolerate any childishness. You are all nearly fully grown.” Reginald took Klaus’s leash from Pogo, who disappeared without a word, or even a glance towards Klaus. Five didn’t blame him; he still couldn’t look at whatever was between Klaus’s legs. 

“Without an omega nearby, your ruts would be slow to develop. Perhaps they would not occur until your later adolescence, making them impossible to predict and likely at odds with one another. This is unacceptable. Number Four’s presence will ensure your hormonal development occurs promptly, with aligned cycles. This will also aid his training as an asset, in ways you cannot imagine.” 

“What the  _ fuck, _ ” Diego said. Five’s face twitched. It didn’t sound like he had meant to say it. 

“Number Two. Disrespect, and foul language, will not be tolerated. When I dismiss you, you will return to your room to consider your choices for the rest of the day. Complete punishment routine eleven in all its parts.” 

A completely normal morning, except that Klaus was standing there  _ naked.  _ On a leash. Like something from a history book. Five still felt like he was going to throw up, omega scent - sweet, clean, pre-heat - doing nothing to calm him down for once. 

He forced himself to look at Klaus, who was still staring into the middle distance above their heads. Then he forced himself to look between Klaus’s legs. 

They had all seen each other naked as children more times than Five could count, but that had stopped for Klaus years before he was sent away. Still, he was confident that the last time he had seen Klaus’s small omega cock, it hadn’t been locked away in a tiny steel cage. And Klaus  _ definitely  _ hadn’t had a fucking metal chastity belt on beneath that, a polished silver shield that disappeared between his legs, locked there with buckles around his thighs and a silver chain around his waist. 

_ His omega cunt is under that.  _ Five looked away, disgusted, but he couldn’t block out the smell of his alpha siblings, or of Klaus. 

“- as you can see,” Reginald said, and Five tried to concentrate on what he was saying. “You will not take out your hormonal urges on him, at risk of expulsion. I will tolerate no behavior which may interfere with Number Four’s training.”

“I expect you may have questions. I will answer only one. Yes,” he said, and pointed to Luther, who cleared his throat. His face was bright red, like the time Diego pushed him off the wall and he’d laid there trying to breathe for ten minutes before he’d been able to rejoin training.

“What happens once we enter rut?” 

_ What happens when Klaus presents? When he enters heat?  _

“You will receive instruction at the correct time. Dismissed.” 

Their father walked out. Klaus shuffled out behind him obediently, not having said a word. 

“What the  _ fuck, _ ” Diego said, again. Five agreed. And he wondered if Klaus had already known this was going to happen, that night they talked on the roof. 


	2. Promises (Diego)

Mom walked Diego to his room, which he told himself was the reason why he wasn’t breaking punishment to find his siblings and figure out  _ what the fuck was going on.  _ He wasn’t going to break Mom’s cold, loving grip on his hand, though, so he followed her with numb obedience. 

When they stopped in front of his room, she sighed and brushed his hair back from his face. “So handsome. I remember when you were just a little boy, and now all of you are so grown up.” 

Normally Diego loved when she did that, but he found little comfort this time. He couldn’t stop seeing Klaus, looking gaunt and unfamiliar. And worse, but Diego didn’t even want to acknowledge that in his own head. 

“Mom,” he said, then stopped. 

“Yes, dear?”

He didn’t know what to ask. Nothing seemed like enough. And however he thought of their Mom, in the deep part of himself he knew she wouldn’t tell them anything if Reginald didn’t want her to. “Is Klaus okay?”

It sounded so pathetic when he said it. And the answer was so obvious. Of course Klaus wasn’t okay, he looked like he’d be talking to himself in a matter of days. 

( _ Go talk to Klaus,  _ their childhood work-around after  _ drop dead  _ had been forbidden. Diego felt like he might pass out.)

“Oh, Diego,” their mom said, and put her arm around him. He missed when he was smaller, and she would wrap him up in her arms and press her cheek to his forehead. “Klaus is so happy that your father has such important plans for him.”

His stomach felt sick and sour. He didn’t even care that he wasn’t getting any birthday cake this year. “Yeah, okay Mom. Love you.”

“I love you too. Now be good, and remember: punishment routine eleven.”

As soon as she locked the door behind him, he threw one of his knives at the wall. It stuck fast, but didn’t do anything for his mood, so he threw two more and laid down on his bed to stare at the ceiling. 

He had come to terms last year with the fact that their father was insane. Their family was insane. Everything in their lives was insane. Ben had nearly  _ died,  _ and the next day they were out doing the exact same thing. 

But he had never expected -

(Klaus had been so funny when they were kids. Not that Diego told him, because encouraging him was always a bad idea, but it had still been funny when he’d sprawl across the couch and say things like  _ pamper me, I’m just a poor little omega,  _ until one of them tossed him, giggling, onto the floor.) 

It’s one thing to know your family is insane. Klaus standing there naked was another thing. 

Diego rolled over, shoved his face into his pillow, and screamed as loud as he could against it. 

His sense of smell hadn’t matured yet, which he was grateful for. Mom’s perfume hung around him, but he had only the slightest idea of what Klaus would have smelled like. Instead of having that stuck in his nose, he had the image of him burned into his thoughts. 

Was he just going to walk around like that? Without any of them  _ saying  _ anything to him? 

The base of his dick had started aching the week before, and it still ached now. He had been planning to ask Mom for an ice pack once the others weren’t around, and he was paying for his shyness now. 

He had been  _ psyched  _ when he had first felt the swelling there. It hurt, sure, but rut usually started a few months after the development of the knot, and he thought Luther was probably as skinny-dicked as ever. Which meant Diego might be first. 

_ To ensure your hormonal development occurs promptly, with aligned cycles. _

Diego could be okay with that. At least they’d all be horny assholes at the same time, then just get back to work. Rut wasn’t like a heat, no alpha  _ had  _ to fuck, and if there were no omegas around then it wouldn’t hurt, just be kind of a bitch to ignore. Eventually the cycles slowed until proper rut only occurred when an alpha’s mate was in heat. 

He and his siblings had long ago decided that their dad wasn’t the type to hire them a Nurse to get through the rut, like he knew spoiled rich alpha kids got for their first time. Now Diego quietly prayed for an uncharacteristic bout of generosity from Reginald. 

Because what the fuck was going to happen otherwise? 

It wouldn’t be long now that Klaus was home. ( _ Home,  _ he thinks, and feels sick again. Home isn’t supposed to be where your dad pulls you around naked in a collar. It’s just not. Even for their twisted version of home.) Whether or not he was in heat, biology would do its job and encourage his alpha siblings to present and enter rut. 

And in turn, their rut would bring on Klaus’s heat.

What was their dad  _ thinking _ ? What did he want them to do to Klaus? 

Diego reached down to push his hand against the sore swelling on his dick, then felt his blood go cold. At some point he’d mindlessly pushed the pillow between his legs, and his hips had been rocking against it slowly for god knows how long. 

He threw the pillow off the bed, then rolled back over and tried to breathe evenly. He wanted to stab himself in the leg with a knife, but he knew better than that. All it would do is make him useless. 

The others were probably already figuring out what to do about Klaus. Normally he hated relying on them, but at least this time it felt comforting. They might not be able to talk to Klaus yet, but they could talk about him. Maybe find a way to get him some clothes, to start with. 

After a while, once his dick had stopped standing to attention, Diego got up and pulled out the punishment book. Number eleven was a bitch and a half, and at least it would give him something to focus on.

* * *

He emerged the next day feeling scared, hungry, and bleary. He’d barely slept the night before, sitting against his door and listening for any sound that might be Klaus. Or anyone. He’d half-expected Five to appear inside his room, but most of him had known that their dad would be hyper-vigilant that night.

The scene at the breakfast table was freakishly normal. Their dad wasn’t there, but that happened a lot. And Klaus wasn’t there, but after a year of complete absence that wouldn’t have even registered without the previous day’s insanity. 

He sat down and caught Allison’s eyes from across the table. She glanced towards Mom, shook her head tightly, and then looked down at her empty plate. 

Diego’s chest felt thick and tight, like he was coming down with the flu. Of course they couldn’t talk in front of Mom. She was a spy, like Five had always said. 

(Stricken with guilt, he looked over at her and smiled. She smiled back, relieving some of his tension despite himself.) 

After breakfast was training, and more training, so it wasn’t until after dinner - their dad was still missing, along with Klaus - that they were able to wander to Five’s room, one by one. Not that they could fool anyone that way, but all of them still felt better about it.

Diego managed to keep silent watching his siblings file in, but he was on his feet the second Luther closed the door behind him. Fucking Luther, making them wait. 

“So what’s the plan?”

The silence that followed was enough to let him know. He wanted to punch someone, but the only one of them close enough was Vanya. She was annoying, kind of, but he wasn’t going to  _ hurt  _ her. 

“We  _ tried, _ ” Luther said, still looking as shell-shocked as Diego had felt the night before. Even with everything else, Diego still felt smug that the situation was so far out of number one’s control. 

“We haven’t  _ tried  _ anything,” Five corrected, in that clipped and annoyingly businesslike voice of his. He was lucky he wasn’t sitting where Vanya was. “But we discussed the matter until Mom made us go to bed.” 

_ The matter.  _ Diego really wanted to punch him.

“Vanya, would you please bring our brother up to date?” 

She looked up at Diego. For a moment he thought she was going to take his hand or something, maybe even try to comfort him, so he sat on the windowsill and ignored her. 

“We don’t know anything,” she said, glancing at Allison and then continuing when she got a nod. “Five thought he had read something about omegas involved in spy missions during the Cold War, but he still has to sneak the book out of the library without dad noticing. We don’t know why he was naked. We don’t know why he was wearing… that. We don’t know where dad is keeping him. We don’t know -”

“We don’t know shit,” Diego said, and took out one of his knives. It was cold in his hands. Easy to understand. “Got it.” 

“Bingo,” Ben said. Diego had hardly been aware of him sitting on the floor next to Five’s bed, but now that he looked him over he realized Ben had probably been awake all night too. He looked like a boiled shit sandwich. “So there’s no point in talking about it anymore. Let’s talk about how nobody is going to touch him.” 

They all started yelling at once, minus Vanya. 

“There is something seriously wrong with you,” Allison said, voice cutting through the noise the same way it always did. “Of  _ course  _ we’re not going to touch him.” 

“Even if dad hadn’t already banned it,” Luther added, probably not realizing that it made him sound kind of guilty. 

“We don’t  _ need  _ dad to tell us not to have sex with our  _ brother, _ ” Allison said, sharply, but Diego couldn’t even laugh at Luther’s crestfallen expression. 

“That kid in Belmont knocked up his omega sister just last month, it was all over the news,” Ben said. He looked determined, like he had prepared a speech or something. “I don’t know what dad’s planning, but we all need to promise that nobody is going to touch Klaus.” 

Diego thought about his pillow. “Hormones are hormones, man. I hate to say it, but promises aren’t going to mean anything if we’re so gone we don’t remember making them.” It felt like he was telling a lie as he said it, but he knew it was true. They all did. Nobody had to know. 

“Promise,” Ben said. “Because I’m unleashing the Horror on anyone who does.” 

There was no hint of bravado on his serious face. Luther made a sound like he’d been kicked in the throat. “Seriously?”

“Don’t test me. It’s going to be at least a few weeks until we go into rut, we have until then to figure it out.” 

Five cleared his throat. “I don’t think Klaus is going to present before then, either. He didn’t smell like he was going to.” 

Diego would have said something in response - since when had Five started presenting, without telling any of them? - but Ben was already talking. “Right. So we have at least two weeks to figure it out. That’s how fast it can happen, once an omega is introduced at the right time. Now promise.” 

They all promised. When it was Diego’s turn he cut his palm and held it up as proof of his commitment, letting the pain crowd out any feeling of guilt. 


	3. Answers (Five)

Two days after their sixteenth birthday, Klaus was still missing. So was their father. Five couldn’t help but feel put out on Klaus’s behalf - he had always been good at dramatic timing, and their father’s big, creepy announcement had been followed by a whole lot of nothing. 

In the meantime, they had decided that their job was to keep their heads down and not create any reason for suspicion. 

Correction: everyone else’s job was to keep their heads down. Five’s job was to search for answers, Klaus, and solutions. In that order. 

Unlike his siblings, there had never been an easy way to keep Five contained. Reginald had developed some kind of membrane to make sure he didn’t blink out of his bassinet as a baby, but the stuff was hard to manufacture and started to smell after a few weeks. He knew that there were places their father kept hidden from him with it, but they were few and far between.

He wasn’t a suck-up like Luther, but he was careful about the trouble he got into and was rewarded for that care with his freedom. He intended to abuse that. 

The library was his first stop once he felt safe enough to explore. The room was dark and silent when he blinked in past midnight, and Five turned on the flashlight he had dimmed by shoving it into one of his socks. It lit up only a small pool in front of him, making the familiar room feel strange and abandoned.

_ And that’s why I’m here and not Ben or Luther,  _ Five thought. For a family of superheroes, they could sure be a bunch of wusses. 

Besides, the library was one of the safest places to be at this time of night. Not only were there two pairs of squeaking doors between him and anyone interested in catching him out, but the library wasn’t technically forbidden. Five could have waltzed in at almost any hour, safely protected by their father’s knowledge that he actually read for pleasure. 

He wasn’t an idiot, though. He didn’t want anyone knowing what books he was reading right now - not even his siblings. They’d be told in due time if there was anything to share, but Five liked privacy when he was working. 

Thanks to their father’s eccentric cataloging system, it took nearly two hours for Five to find what he was looking for: the architectural plans for their house, and a heavy treatise on the Cold War. (He’d read the latter a few years back. He liked the Cold War.) 

He’d hoped to find what he was looking for before breakfast the next morning, but he’d only worked his way through a quarter of the Cold War before he heard Luther clomping down the stairs for breakfast. Five rubbed his face, swore, and blinked to the kitchen. 

“ _ There  _ you are. I was just going to send Diego for you,” Mom said. “It’s not like you to be late for eggs benedict.” 

“It’s not like you to be late,” Diego said. He was spinning one of his knives on the table, not even bothering to look at it. “It’s out of character. Could be labeled suspicious.” 

Diego was terrible at subterfuge, so Five blinked across the table and smacked the back of his head. The knife clattered onto the floor, and Mom said “Boys, boys.” 

“See? That’s your problem, Mom. They’re  _ boys, _ ” Allison said. “Go eat your eggs, Five. Hollandaise is gross when it gets cold.” 

* * *

The next night, t-minus eleven days until the possible start of their rut, Five found the right paragraph in the right chapter. There was no point in beating himself up for how long it took to find, the fucking thing was hidden under  _ Novel Methods of Counter-Intelligence and Extortion in CIA Documents (1951-1968).  _

He’d hoped it would give them a head start on their research, but instead he felt like he’d dropped a bomb into his own brain. Their father was, for once, a completely open book - or at least his plans for Klaus were. 

_...since most of Project ULTRA’s files were destroyed or remain classified. However, freedom of information requests in 1987 revealed that the project was concerned with the use of omegas in intelligence efforts. Rumours persist that this was accomplished through the illegal denial of the initial presentational urge throughout the primary year, which Rogers et al. (1942, Journal of Omega Studies) controversially theorized may enhance ordinary omega pheromone production by a factor of twelve. This is said to have occurred in conjunction with the use of psychoactive substances for asset control and well-being.  _

Just holding the book in question made Five feel like Reginald was going to appear at any moment. Like it was a homing beacon. Like Five should destroy it. He tossed it onto the floor instead, twitching and going still at the soft thump. 

It was past midnight again, if only just, which gave him approximately seven hours to decide what to tell his family. Sleep could wait, he told himself. Putting his thoughts together was more important. 

Which is obviously how he found himself blinking through their house, only glancing between jumps at the architectural plans in his fist.  _ This is a panic attack,  _ he told himself,  _ this is what having a panic attack feels like,  _ but knowing that didn’t help at all. 

He had never thought that he trusted their dad, but apparently some childish part of him had been left somewhere in his chest, whining and sniffling pathetically, desperate to pretend that they had a family that made sense. A father who knew what was best for them. 

Somehow that hadn’t been destroyed by  _ literally everything in his life up until this point,  _ but he thought that it must be gone now. Snuffed out. Kaput. And in its absence, all Five knew is that he had to find Klaus. 

It was easier than he expected.

_ Storage,  _ the architectural plans said, and Five guessed that it wasn’t  _ wrong.  _ Their dad was storing Klaus there, after all. The room was tiny but well-lit, crowded with hulking machines that made important-sounding noises at irregular intervals. 

Klaus laid on a cot, bound to it by his wrists, ankles, and a broad strap across his thin, pale chest. He still wore the chastity belt. Wires and IV drips disappeared under his skin. 

His eyes were open. 

“Klaus.”

There was no response. This close, the scent of him was stronger than Five had ever smelled - which was no surprise, since he was the first omega Five had seen since beginning to present. His skin was mottled white and pink, flushed across his chest with a thin sheen of sweat, but his wrists looked thin enough to break. 

Five reached out and touched Klaus’s collarbone. The skin there was stretched tight and hot beneath his fingers, which he slid towards the hard ridge of his breastbone. Klaus moaned restlessly, and Five jerked his fingers back like they were burned.

“What’s wrong with you,” he whispered. Klaus stared at the ceiling, eyes rolling in their deep sockets. 

“Lysergic acid diethylamide,” Reginald said, and Five nearly toppled Klaus’s cot in his hurry to turn around. Their father was as calm as ever, standing by the open door with his suit jacket over his forearm. At three in the morning. 

“LSD,” Five said. Klaus’s monitors beeped steadily behind him. It was impossible to decipher their father’s expression, and he knew that he had approximately five seconds to make a decision before Reginald made a very final one for him. “That makes sense.”

“Oh?” Reginald raised his eyebrows. 

“You need to keep him docile while his mind adjusts to being home. Except you don’t want him to really adjust, do you? You just want to erase that boundary, otherwise he might do something like try to talk to us before he’s with it enough to keep his mouth shut about this.” 

His mouth tasted like fear, like a green penny under his tongue, but Reginald stayed silent so Five kept talking. “Mescaline can affect heat cycles, and the mushrooms are too… healing. Likewise DMT. Besides, it’s hard to dose them at the levels you want, so - LSD.” 

Reginald closed the door behind himself. “Look at him. Why on earth would I avoid something you say is healing?” 

Five might have been tempted to back down, but he was bolstered by his dad’s tone: that was his teaching voice. He wasn’t feigning innocence, he was prompting Five. 

“Because that would disturb the past three years of careful work in designing how you want his mind to function. And that can’t happen because he’s coming into heat soon, and you only have one chance to do this right.” 

Reginald looked at him silently for a moment that swung between them like a cat’s cradle, then nodded. “Very good, Number Five. You know what I am attempting, then.” 

“Not everything,” he admitted, watching as Reginald laid his jacket over the back of an uncomfortable-looking chair. “But I know that the ULTRA project must have actually succeeded. Didn’t it? They figured out how to enhance omega pheromones through prolonged denial after the first heat. You’re making Klaus irresistible, in heat or not. The perfect thing for a honeypot set-up. Maybe even incapacitating, if it’s by a factor of twelve.” 

Klaus whined fretfully behind him, but Five didn’t flinch. He knew he was right. He’d known he was right as soon as he’d read that paragraph, but telling his father felt different. Instead of panicking, he felt powerful. 

“Yes, they did succeed. Sadly, the unfortunates who were part of that program were not... properly prepared for the ordeal,” Reginald said. He looked at ease, in control, the way he always did. For once, Five felt like his father was speaking to him like a peer. “I have corrected this flaw. Number Four is ready.” 

_ Klaus is sixteen,  _ Five thought, but didn’t say. He was sixteen as well, wasn’t he? Hardly a child. On the verge of presentation. “The others want to save him.” 

He thought their dad would ask if he wanted to as well - he found Five standing with Klaus in the middle of the night, didn’t he? - but Reginald just laughed his cold laugh. “Number Four and I came to an agreement many years ago. I suppose he never told you why I ended his initial training.” 

“He couldn’t get over being afraid,” Five said, already knowing that must not be it. 

“That is part of it, yes. But he was... precocious, and had discovered that certain substances could diminish his gift. After Grace was forbidden from dispensing medication for his perfidious claims of injury, he did not settle. Instead, he escaped from the protection of this house and attempted to barter his childish wiles for relief.” 

Five couldn’t keep his mouth shut. “At  _ twelve _ ?” He thought about Klaus on the roof, his graceless limbs and his hollow laughter. He hoped Klaus hadn’t succeeded, but wondered if he had. 

Reginald nodded. “You can understand my concern. As I said, he and I came to an agreement. I explained that the regimen would supply him with all of the relief required, and that in turn he would be of great use to both our family and society. Force is only one form of heroism. The ability to make an enemy vulnerable without it is a great strength.” 

“He understood what it entailed?”

“He did.” 

Five turned back to Klaus, his back to his father. It should have been a calculated risk - Reginald never approved of being dismissed - but Five hadn’t been able to stop himself, he needed to see him again. Klaus hadn’t changed, probably wasn’t even aware of either of them in the room with him, but it was somehow easier to look at his bruised eyes and sharp bones. 

Drugs do that, after all. And Five could still remember how Klaus was the first time he came back from the crypt, hysterical and unresponsive for days. The  _ first  _ time. Maybe this was better. 

Reginald came to stand at Five’s side. “Achieving greatness often requires some amount of suffering. You have suffered yourself - would you change that now?” 

Five closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see his brother like this, he didn’t want to be having this conversation. All that did was make him more aware of Klaus’s scent, which was warm and sweet and soft. Familiar, too, even though Five hadn’t been able to smell him when they were younger. “No. Are you going to punish me for finding him?”

“I expected you to discover my agenda before the others, Number Five, though I thought it might take longer than this. You’ve always been smarter, and more curious, than your siblings. No, I will not punish you.”

Five waited, holding his breath. It didn’t matter - he could still smell Klaus, the scent of him crowding into his mouth, his nose. 

“In return, I expect you will not inform the other children of what you have learned, or of our meeting tonight. You have always been circumspect, and I trust your ability to remain that way.”

“Why?” The word was out of his mouth before he could stop it; he was getting as bad as Diego. He still couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes, leaning against the comfort of omega scent to keep himself from shaking. 

“Number Four will require careful handling after the program is finished. I believe you would perform well in such a role, ensuring that his strengths are put to good use and his needs are properly seen to. The others are too sentimental, or impulsive, or foolish. Overfond of him. If your performance over the next year is satisfactory, he will be your charge.” 

Despite himself, Five felt his chest warm at the praise. There was so little of it, so he knew that Reginald really meant it when he did say it. Klaus smelled so  _ good,  _ so familiar, so safe.  _ Five  _ could keep him safe, make him part of the academy again. Part of the team. Part of the family again. He could protect him, even from their father if necessary. Still - “He’s my  _ brother.  _ Seeing to his  _ needs _ ?”

Reginald laughed again. Five couldn’t remember the last time he had heard him laugh so much in such a short time. “Don’t be foolish, Number Five. Know thyself - you forget that I can scent you as well as you can scent him. Your previous relationship is hardly bothering you now.” 

Five opened his eyes. Klaus hadn’t changed, and neither had his scent. He was still breathing shallowly, eyes still staring emptily at the ceiling, and he still smelled like something Five would kill for. 

Like something Five wanted. His stomach twisted. 

“Go on. Prove to yourself that he is alive and well,” Reginald said, and Five reached out before he had even finished speaking. 

Klaus’s face was soft despites its hollows and hard lines, downy with peach-fuzz that would never become the goatee he’d claimed to want when they were designing their future costumes as kids. They’d teased him so much for that. 

For the first time since Five had found him, Klaus moved, turning his head against the touch and sighing with what sounded like pleasure. His eyes were still open, but Five was used to that now. He touched Klaus’s slender throat, telling himself he was taking his pulse, more aware than he wanted to be of the bonding gland just inches from his fingers. 

He could keep Klaus safe. He  _ knew  _ that he could. Their father wasn’t wrong - the others would falter. They didn’t have his determination. 

Klaus’s scent was stronger now, like stepping into a greenhouse of tropical flowers. Their mother’s peach cobbler. Five’s breath shook in his chest, and he laid his palm flat against Klaus’s stomach. It rose and fell smoothly beneath the weight, and Five thought that maybe his breath had evened out. 

The chastity belt no longer looked obscene. It looked like safety. Even if he had succeeded in finding someone to give him drugs at twelve, none of those men could come back and hurt him again. Not with that metal in the way. Not with Five in the way. 

Five growled. His cock ached. Klaus moaned, barely audible even in the silent room, and Five took a step closer to the cot. Despite the cuffs holding his wrists down, Klaus’s hands clenched and unclenched - like he was trying to reach for Five. 

The skin below the waist chain, above the cage around Klaus’s cock, was the softest thing Five had ever felt. He wondered how easily it would bruise if someone bit him. If Five did. His mouth felt dry and hungry for it, and Klaus shivered as though he could sense what Five was thinking.

It would be so easy. 

“Enough,” Reginald said; Five had forgotten he was even standing there. He stumbled back a step, breathing erratically, vision blurred. “You are dismissed. I expect your siblings will remain unaware of our meeting tonight.” 

Five, face burning and stomach rolling in self-disgust, didn’t have to be told twice. 

He blinked back to his room where he immediately collapsed down to the floor, head pounding, an unfamiliar and insistent ache at the base of his dick. The loss of Klaus’s scent made him want to howl. 

_ What the fuck.  _


End file.
